As Communist forces sweep across mainland China in 1948–1949, the Nationalist government collapses city by city. Soldiers, officials, intellectuals, and civilians are drawn into a vast, improvised retreat toward the southeast coast. Amid chaos, corruption, heroism, and despair, the remnants of an army and a state struggle to hold together as airfields fall, ports overflow, and families are torn apart. What begins as a temporary withdrawal slowly reveals itself as something far more final.
The last act unfolds across the Taiwan Strait. Under constant pressure and dwindling hope of return, the refugees arrive on an island not meant to be a capital, carrying with them the symbols, archives, and unresolved claims of a fallen mainland regime. As Taiwan becomes a place of refuge, tension grows between survival and memory, duty and loss. Exodus ends not with victory or surrender, but with an unfinished war—one side defeated, the other displaced, and a future suspended across the sea.
